Palazzo del Senato is the location of Milan’s State Archive. This is a fascinating collection of documents, providing living testimony of important historical events in the city, and long-lost habits and customs from the Longobard epoch to contemporary times.The structure itself, in 1608, was the location of a Swiss College created by Cardinal Borromeo. Today, the archive includes documents from the Sforza’s Dukedom, the Spanish and Austrian rules, and from the Risorgimento period in which Italy conquered its unity. Today, its interiors are modern and functional, so that this vast heritage can be explored in great comfort.The interiors include a study room for the consultation of documents, a mediathèque, and a computer room for consulting digital archives and microfilmed documents. Small events and exhibitions are organized in the library.All this is part of an extensive architectural complex with large internal courts, a perfect setting for the wealth of documents and historic records that it contains in conditions of meticulously supervised conservationAfter the transfer of the clerics, Giuseppe II made it the Palazzo del Governo in 1787. It then became Palazzo del Senato after the Cisalpine Republic until 1814, giving its name to the street.
In front of the palace, there is a bronze sculpture by Joan Miro’.